The invention relates to the winding of plastic or metallic foil tapes, or combinations or laminations thereof, used in the manufacture of telecommunication cables and the like.
Such tapes, which form protective moisture and dielectric barriers around the wire bundle in such cables, are normally produced in spiral rolls which are mounted on payout stands in the plant of the cable manufacturer, and led into the machinery which simultaneously wraps the tape around the wire bundle and extrudes a plastic jacket over the wire bundle and tape assembly.
Such an operation, once started, cannot be stopped without ruining the cable, so it is desirous that rolls of tape should be as long as possible, to avoid changing rolls during the cable making process, and the hazard of making splices between tape rolls while the cable is in motion.
However, there are physical limitations to the size of rolls of tape which can be handled without damage thereto or "telescoping", and these limitations have resulted in costly and time consuming problems in cable production.
For example, tape splicing machines exist which permit splicing to be undertaken without stopping the wrapping process. Prior art known to applicant comprises U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,083,515 which discloses method and apparatus for determining and controlling wire spacing on a spool, 3,456,899 which deals with a winch winding assembly, 3,779,480 which shows a translating winder for electrical cables, 3,979,084 which is for the winding of tubes, 3,023,888 illustrating a method and apparatus for coiled strip ribbing and 3,997,122 covering a tape supply package for wrapping a plurality of different tapes around an electric conductor. French Pat. No. 1,368,354 shows a relatively conventional method of tape spooling.